Hrithik Roshan to ride Hero’s Karizma again

The actor took to his Instagram to tease a renewal of his endorsement of Hero’s Karizma, an ad which he featured in back in 2003. 

Actor Hrithik Roshan’s decade-old ad for Hero Honda Karizma evokes strong recognition to this day. In the ad, Roshan flips his cap while sitting in a Western saloon-style location. This ‘cap lift’ is a scene that, in particular, remains etched in the minds of bike enthusiasts.

The actor took to Instagram to reignite the nostalgia for the ad. He posted a small clip of the scene on his Instagram on August 7. “If the tales are to be believed, then the time has come for me to ride the Legend again! Recreate the Cap-Lift using #LiveTheLegend and tag @heromotocorp. You are in for a legendary surprise with me!” he said in the caption of the post. 

The advertisement depicted Roshan taking on a motorcycle gang within a Western backdrop. After the gang insultingly smeared mud over the bike and attempted to escape, Roshan pursued and overtook them. Then, playing on the bike’s speedy appeal, the mud from Karizma splatters out with the wind and coats the bikers. The scene perfectly encapsulates the tagline for the campaign, “Now you can ‘Jet Set Go’ and have the ride of your life.”

The original ad came out around 2003 when Roshan was appointed as the brand ambassador. During that era, Karizma held sway within the premium motorcycle segment which was known for bikes focused on speed and aesthetics. Karizma was first launched in India in 2003 as the Hero Honda Karizma. Its success was driven by the untapped 200-250 cc niche in the market. 

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The bike got a new variant in the Karizma R in 2007 which was also fairly successful. However, the brand wasn’t able to sustain its success post the split between Hero and Honda in 2011. With both brands going down different roads, Hero was able to retain Karizma and launched a new variant Karizma ZMR. Yet, the sales of this variant failed to replicate the triumph of the 2003 model, experiencing a gradual decline that eventually reached zero in 2019.

Recent media reports have indicated that a new variant of Karizma ZMR, the Hero Karizma XMR 210, is scheduled to launch by the end of this month. The new variant is speculated to have a 210-cc engine, a step down from the original 223-cc engine size.